What does YFC mean to me? Confidence

By Rhys James. Llysyfran YFC, Wales

I am a completely different person to the shy 12-year old who joined YFC six years ago. I’m now a confident public speaker who will give anything a go!

I got involved in stockjudging quite early on and really enjoyed it. It has taught me how to work as a team and also improved my public speaking thanks to giving reasons to the judges. This confidence has helped me both professionally and personally. Interviews for university were so much easier thanks to my stockjudging experience and the Junior Member of the Year competition I entered and won a few years ago.

I’m now studying Geography in Bristol and found it easy to make new friends, probably because I have been doing it through YFC for years.

Before I could drive, my once-a-week club meeting would be a social lifeline as I lived on the family farm and it was difficult to see anyone outside of school.

There’s not much to do near where I live and YFC offers you a massive social network as well as the opportunity to learn new skills.

I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for YFC as my parents met through my club when they were members! Some of my closest friends are from YFC – we are one big family.